Erin and Ruby Come to Taipei

Last weekend Ruby and Erin decided to pay a visit to Taipei. Unfortunately, it will probably be one of the last times I get to see Ruby before her big move to Finland so we decided to make the most of the time we had. So on Friday, after work, Ruby came over to my house and we both, along with George, had pizza before heading out to an all-you-can-drink bar near Zhong Xiao Fu Xing called Darts One, which is owned by one of Erin’s friends.

We met Erin there at around 8:30 and wasted no time in taking full advantage of their generous offer. Ordinarily the place is not all-you-can-drink and so the drinks were very strong. Due to this fact, along with some of Erin’s crazy friends who were drinking like prohibition was being initiated the next day!, we were drinking at an alarming pace. One drinking game after the other, they showed no mercy, relentless in their desire to see us all passed out in a self-induced coma!

Ruby and George seemed to have more sense and control of the situation and managed to escape to Roxy99 to try and find Ruby a guy. Meanwhile, Erin and I stayed in this public house of decadence and continued drinking. I don’t really remember much after about 1 but I’m sure a good time was had by all.

Apparently when I got home I was sick and left poor George to clean it up, ewww, thanks hon! The next thing I remember is waking up the next morning with the mother of all hangovers and supposedly kicking Ruby out of the bed in the middle of the night. We all managed to make our way to the diner for lunch and then rest for the remainder of the day.

On Saturday evening we met up with the Canadians and headed to JR Café for some preliminary drinks. Then we headed to Roxy99 for some dance action. With my hangover now gone I could enjoy the night and certainly did enjoy the music there. Thank God it wasn’t a night of hip-hop! Determined to continue the party after Roxy closed we went to the Vibe which was similar music. We finally left at around 6ish and headed home. Needless to say Sunday was pretty much a do-nothing kind of day. Great weekend and good fun, a nice way for Ruby to say goodbye to Taiwan, although there maybe one more to come!

Fork in the Road

Modern Toilet: Shi Lin (8.8.08)

Friday evening saw George, Andrea, Lindsay, Mavis, Adam, and I head to a themed restaurant called 'Modern Toilet'. As the name suggests, everything is based around the bathroom. The seats were toilets, the tables were baths, and the food came served in various guises of toilets. Here are some pictures from the evening

Hua Xi Jie (Snake Alley)

Yesterday evening saw an impromptu trip to Hua Xi Jie with George and two Canadian friends, Andrea and Lindsay. Both Andrea and Lindsay are leaving soon and are trying to do as many crazy things as possible before they leave! I’ve been to snake alley before, with my parents, but had never fully enjoyed the whole experience of eating snakes and everything entailed with such an endeavor. We scoured the alley trying to search out the best place to eat. Having the wonderful George to make inquiries for us, we decided not to eat at the place which appeared to show no mercy towards decapitating live tortoises with more brute force and malice than anything I have ever seen. Instead, we settled on a place just along from there.

The girls’ intention was to go the whole way and try everything that this damn snake had to offer. This included; the snake’s bile, blood, cum, and obviously the meat too. Thankfully we drew the line at not eating snake venom which is surely wrong on a number of levels.

The snake soup arrived first. This was not much of a challenge as I have tried this before and actually there is not much to eating snake at all. Devouring the soup unscathed it was time for the snake blood and bile filled with cum. When they arrived they looked like two shot glasses of some alcohol, actually it reminded me very much of the aftershock shots of old, the red and green varieties. This image was only compounded when I smelt them, vodka! Yes, vodka was the overriding smell of both of these concoctions.

To cut a long story short, down the hatch they both went (between all four of us of course) There was no taste other than alcohol and a slight taste of iron, which was of some relief. The taste of blood I could have handled, the taste of bile is another story altogether!

After this we went to another restaurant to eat raw shrimp. I must admit I was highly skeptical of the whole thing. Shrimp are cooked for a reason, raw shrimp just seemed wrong! The more humane explanation of what happens is that the shrimp are soaked in alcohol until they become ‘drunk’ then you can peel them and eat them. The more realistic view is that they are poisoned to the point of death in a bath of alcohol then you rip them to shreds whilst apparently still alive (to what extent I couldn’t really make out). Anyway, despite the dubious preparations, the actual taste of raw shrimp was absolutely delicious. In fact, I could have eaten a whole lot more and it is definitely something I would love to try again, good one George! Quite an interesting night all round.

Kate Bush: 'Sunset'

Not one for being particularly direct about my feelings I'm taking to expressing it via a song. This may be cryptic to everyone else, but it pretty much sums up my feelings right now!

Written and produced by Kate Bush (from the album Aerial)

Could be honeycomb
In a sea of honey
A sky of honey
Whose shadow,
long and low
Is slipping out of wet clothes?
And changes into
The most beautiful Iridescent blue

Who knows who wrote that song of Summer
That blackbirds sing at dusk
This is a song of colour
Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust
Then climb into bed and turn to dust
Every sleepy light
Must say goodbye
To day before it dies

In a sea of honey
A sky of honey
Keep us close to your heart
So if the skies turn dark
We may live on in Comets and stars

Who knows who wrote that song of Summer
That blackbirds sing at dusk
This is a song of colour
Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust
Then climb into bed and turn to dust
Who knows who wrote that song of Summer
That blackbirds sing at dusk
This is a song of colour
Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust
Then climb into bed and turn to dust

Chorus :Oh sing of summer and a sunset
And sing for us, so that we may remember
The day writes the words right across the sky
They go all the way up to the top of the night

Taichung Shenanigans

This weekend saw an impromptu return visit to Taichung to see all my old friends who i haven't seen for such a long time and miss lots! George came along with me as well as my friends Lester and Daniel. As i didn't have to work on Friday we decided to leave on Friday afternoon. Daniel kindly drove us all to Taipei and we arrived in good time by about 7. We decided to have dinner at Chilis. Finally, i got the meal I have been looking forward to for ages! Cajun Chicken Pasta! It was just as good as i remembered, albeit a little pricey! Then George and I went to meet little Steve while Lester and Daniel went to met their friends. We then headed to Steve's place, which is very nice; wish i had a place like that! He kindly lent us a spare key and a room so we were basically free to roam which was great.

Freedom beckoned for the evening, it just had to be done! We got there at about 11 and met Willie, Erin, and Kyle. Although freedom has changed a lot and was not as good as it used to be, I think we more than made up for that with great people. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all had a great time. I probably had one Long Island Ice Tea's too many due to my poor performance at drinking games. I'm really out of practice! We then headed to Scorpion afterwards and apparently I sang My Heart Will Go On by that horrific woman Celine Dion. I'm not sure what possessed me!! Glad that I have little to no recollection of the song, i can only imagine what a car wreck it was!

Saturday got off to a slow start, George and I didn't arise until early afternoon and slowly stumbled around the house for a couple of hours deviously deciding what to do for the rest of the day, we decided on Fingas as George had great recommendations about the place. Although I feel it's just an average place, it was good to eat there with friends again, and I'm sure George was satisfied. It was the first time to see Peter in a long time too! Afterwards, George, Kyle, Peter and I went bowling and then back to Kyles to relax.

To be fair, I think we would have stayed in on Saturday night but I really wanted to see the guys who I didn't get the chance to see on Friday. So we decided on Pig Pen! Although we didn't drink much it was great to see Daisy, Nell, Charity and some of the others again. Had a nice time there and then off to my old favorite breakfast store, how i miss that place!

We headed back to Taipei Sunday afternoon where George and I went for Cantonese food at a nice little place called Hong Kong. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing at home. Great weekend overall and was so good to see everyone again!

The Last Shadow Puppets: The Age Of The Understatement

Appearing without any fanfare whatsoever, this first side project from the Artic Monkeys front man, Alex Turner, is a truly superb and, predictably epic, affair. Bold and exhilarating, this album is inspired by the wide screen orchestral pop scene of the sixties; with nods towards Scott Walker and early David Bowie as well as the legendary David Axlerod. The result is emphatically triumphant. It owes as much to the romanticism of Richard Hawley and the eclectic approach of The Coral as much as any sixties precursors. The thundering title track is a cinematic patchwork of Morricone-esque themes and rhythmic motifs topped off with a hint of Northern wit. We are then led twisting and turning frantically and energetically along a road of brilliant and bombastic orchestration ('Meeting Place') and genuinely exciting music ('Standing Next to Me'). This album is by no means uplifting, many of these songs are dark and moody yet 'The Age of the Understatement' is a wholeheartedly convincing album that proves the adaptability of Turner and marks him out once and for all as one of the great singer-songwriters of his generation.